Switzerland: Coop records 5% sales increase

Coop was able to increase its retail and wholesale sales last year. According to the Swiss company, sales rose by 5% to around 30.7 bn Swiss francs.

In 2017, Coop broke the 30-bn-Swiss-franc-barrier for the first time. The company increased its net sales by 9% to around CHF 14.2 bn, particularly in the wholesale and production sectors. The Coop subsidiary Transgourmet, which is active as a wholesaler in many European countries, accounted for a large share of the growth in the wholesale trade with a good CHF 9.7 bn. This enabled the Swiss wholesaler to further expand its position as the second-largest company in the European collection and delivery wholesale trade.

Coop specialist formats grew particularly strongly

In addition to the increase in wholesale, however, Coop was also able to record growth of 2% year-on-year in retail with a plus of CHF 17.8 bn. At around CHF 10.4 bn, the supermarkets were only able to increase their net sales moderately (plus CHF 83 mn), but their customer frequency increased by 3.1%.

Coop achieved higher growth with their specialist formats, which include subsidiaries such as Interdiscount, Fust, import perfumery and the furniture chain Livique. Net sales of specialist formats increased by 3.8% to CHF 7.4 bn. In a press release, the company emphasized net sales of CHF 2.1 bn in consumer electronics and 8.5% in Coop Vitality pharmacies compared with the previous year. As the company also announced, Coop Vitality pharmacies also broke the CHF 200 mn barrier for the first time.

Successful private labels

As Coop reports, its own sustainability brands and seals of quality also developed very positively in the past year. According to the company, sales of the Naturaplan brand alone rose by 17.1%.

The net revenue of the Coop online trade rose to 2.3 bn Swiss francs in 2018, a strong 20.4% increase. In retail, the online business grew by 14.9% to CHF 782 mn. The online supermarket Coop@home grew by 6.7%. The online shops in the consumer electronics segment with Microspot, Nettoshop, Fust and Interdiscount continued their successful course and grew by 17.4% to over half a billion. In wholesale, net sales in online business grew by 23.4% to over CHF 1.5 bn.

After purchasing the organic supermarket chain Whole Foods in 2017, the online retailer Amazon plans to open more organic supermarket stores in the US. Further, a delivery service for organic food is to be established at all locations.

Despite massive organic advertising in the conventional food retail: The organic specialist trade also recorded an increase in turnover in the 3rd quarter and can now look back on a good year of continuous growth.